Monkey Mia and the Dolphin experience of a lifetime!

Around four weeks ago I received an email in my inbox from the Volunteer Program Coordinator of Parks and Wildlife which I quickly scanned because most volunteer opportunities are usually during my working hours so I can’t always take part.

This one was different! They were looking for volunteers for the coming school holidays at Monkey Mia in Shark Bay, Western Australia for the Dolphin Experience. So I thought about it and then found a willing partner-in-crime (another teacher, Lisa) and replied with some dates that we could get up there and be a part of this program.

I had never been to Monkey Mia and Lisa had been but she was willing to go again and is a nature-lover and a fellow standup paddler like myself so she jumped at the chance to spend time and get up close and personal with real live dolphins and to SUP the Monkey Mia bay.

We planned our trip and made a list of everything we would need. I called the RAC Resort before we left to check if we could book a non powered camping site. All other options were fully booked and quite expensive. The non powered sites could not be booked in advance but I was assured that they turned no one away and that we would get a 10% discount for being volunteers. I was also advised to call the day before to let them know we were on our way.

The first leg of our trip on Thursday 3rd October took us 415 km (around 4.5 hours drive) as far as Geraldton where we stayed at the Geraldton Backpackers on the Foreshore. I hadn’t stayed in Geraldton since I was 19 or 20 and then it was just a blur of beers at the Tarcoola Tavern and a yacht trip to the Abrohlis Islands with a boy I barely knew, but that’s another story entirely! The accomodation there is quite basic but clean and comfortable. The managers were very accomodating and let us keep our Paddle Boards in the laundry over night. We went and had a couple of cocktails at a local bar to launch our adventure and then went to Woollies to shop for the week. We had dinner at the local Thai Restaurant “Tanti’s” which was delicious! The restaurant is BYO and has a wide range of delicious authentic Thai dishes.

The following morning we got up at 5.30 am and left for Monkey Mia. Our induction into the volunteer program was at 1.00 pm and we wanted to get up there with plenty of time to set up camp and get our bearings. The first leg of our trip treated us to wildflowers in abundance! Flashes of red, yellow, orange and purple on the roadside.

We made pretty good time, stopping at Billabong Roadhouse, an outpost around 250 km north of Geraldton with accomodation that boasts 210 television stations, twin and share rooms with air conditioning and a restaurant that is decorated with curling photos of not only everyone’s faces but their tattoos as well! They do a pretty good “real bean” coffee and cater for all dietary requirements, GF, vegan, vegetarian, lactose intolerance and those who just want to carb load on a roadhouse pie and ice coffee. The kitsch snow globes and tacky souvenirs caught my eye as I have a bit of a thing for snow domes but I resisted the urge to purchase.

We fuelled up both the car and ourselves and hit the road again. Next stop Denham for fuel and a toilet stop. Warning signs with pictures of goats, emus, kangaroos and echidnas were along the roadside but the only creatures we saw were some goats and, later when we were leaving Denham, some emus. Denham is a typical Western Australian fishing town with a supermarket, a pub and some accomodation. The beach and the ocean looked stunning, aqua blue. We didn’t stop for long, Monkey Mia was calling.

The drive into Monkey Mia was stunning. There is nothing to describe the blues of the ocean except aqua. It looks like an Instagram shot with a filter, almost too good to be true. On the way in you drive past “Little Lagoon” and “Shell Beach” both places were met with gasps from both of us. The contrast of red, red dirt and white, white sand and that blue! It is only 23 km from Denham to Monkey Mia so the drive didn’t take long. We were soon at the gate to the park where we were greeted by one of the rangers. Because we were volunteering we didn’t have to pay the park entry and we were directed into the Resort Office to organise our camping spot.

The camping at the RAC Resort is top notch. Apparently it has all been revamped recently and I would go so far as to describe it as “glamping”. The spot where we were to pitch our tents was grassy and the paths all fine white gravel. The shower blocks and camp kitchen very well appointed with cooking facilities, fridges, tables and chairs and charging stations for phones and devices. There was even (a bit unnecessarily I thought) a television. The camp kitchen had concertina windows that were opened in the morning to let in the fresh air. The shower and toilet blocks, clean with enough toilets and showers to cater for everyone.

The day we arrived it was blowing a gale and we only managed to set up one tent. Our small tent was a one pole wonder and there was no way it was going to stand up against the wind so Lisa decided to sleep in my car and she stayed there for the whole time. We probably could have done without the esky and we didn’t use the gas cooker the whole time we were there.

It was school holidays so the Park was very busy and filled to capacity in most areas. I think the most movement happened in the unpowered section. We had new neighbours every evening and woke up to empty spots every morning. A very transient population!

So, we set up camp and went over to the Rangers Office to check in for our induction. We met Amber who took us through our duties and all the Health and Safety checklists. We met our fellow volunteers who were mostly teachers along with a couple of young travellers. Everyone was very welcoming. The instructions were a little overwhelming at first but we were signed up for an afternoon shift for our first shift so we decided that we could use this shift to suss out the busy morning shift duties.

While we were having our induction some dolphins swam into the Dolphin Experience Area (or the DEA) I was pretty excited. The dolphins were pretty much a constant during our stay, not only while conducting the experience but just while out paddling or swimming in the bay they would pop their fins up. I will never tire of seeing a dolphin fin its one of the most joyful sights in the world. The dolphins’ fins are unique because they have a unique shape or ridges and cuts that identify them to the rangers.

The afternoon was spent sorting out our gear and having a wander around the resort. We had previously booked the restaurant for dinner thinking that we might be too knackered to cook. The Monkey Bar had Happy Hour from 4.30 – 5.30 pm so we had some Pimms in the beer garden overlooking more incredible blue water. The Monkey Bar serves pub grub meals of the fish and chips, pizza and burger variety and is part of the Dolphin Lodge complex that offers dorm style accomodation and some ocean view rooms.

Dinner was delicious at the Boughshed Restaurant, a bit more of an upmarket eatery with a beautiful outlook of, you guessed it, aqua blue water. The next morning we got up and breakfasted so we could go down and watch the Dolphins and get a feel for how it all works. The volunteers we met the day before were rushing around counting the crowd and the boats in the harbour, making a weather report, weighing and thawing out fish and talking on the two way to the rangers. When the actual experience started the volunteers entered the water with the fish and then chose people to feed the 2 dolphins who were following the buckets and the rangers up and down the beach.

The two dolphins currently part of the experience are two adult females with nursing calves. The calves come into the area while there mums are eating and frolic in the shallows, sometimes they come right up to the shore and splash their tails. It is just the most joyful sight and in the coming days where I was able to stand right next to dolphins and have them brush their heads and tails against my legs and vocalise to me was just the most incredible thing I have ever experienced.

There are a number of other Bottle-Nosed dolphins that swim around and sometimes come into the experience area. The rangers are currently trying to tempt a third dolphin into the experience as they have provision to have 5 dolphins. While it is a great attraction for the many tourists who come into the resort it is also very heavily controlled and monitored so that the dolphins still use their natural hunting behaviours to survive. In fact only 10% of their daily food intake is given at this time.

Unfortunately things got out of hand in the 1980s when the dolphins were being fed constantly and touched by tourists. The dolphins stopped hunting for their food and there was a 90% mortality rate in dolphin calves, not to mention the aggressive behaviours that the dolphins developed due to reliance on the supplied fish.

The Department of Parks and Wildlife stepped in and the program is now run in a very sensitive and sensible manner. The dolphins are being constantly monitored, protected and observed. See The Shark Bay Dolphin Project.

Apart from being part of the Dolphin feeding experience there are various other chores that the volunteers are asked to do such as, checking cars in the carpark for permits, sweeping, setting up the movie room, more sweeping, keeping notes on the dolphins that appear in the bay, beach patrols and general cleaning. The volunteers can either do a morning (7:00 – 12:00) or afternoon (12:00 – 4:00).

That morning we had our first SUP and it was just as beautiful as it looked from the shore, I saw a green turtle skimming through the sea grass and it popped its head up right in front of my board. The abundance of fish and swimming creatures is phenomenal in this area. We managed to SUP every day, sometimes dolphins would pass by so close you felt their blowholes. One day I had 6 of them pass straight under my board and then turn around and pass straight under again. We were asked to keep 30m between us and the dolphins at all times but the dolphins obviously didn’t have the same boundaries!

We took one of the huge cats out to Cape Rose. The Shotover is a beautiful boat with a very laid back fun crew. We spent time looking for dugongs but none were to be found. The view from the boat and the swim that we stopped and had was more than enough to compensate for the lack of sea cows. The crew did say that we could go out as many times as we like at no further cost if we really wanted to see a certain sea creature. Unfortunately we had no more time but I would have liked to have taken up that offer.

If you ever have a free week or so in the school holidays consider this amazing experience. Not only will you get to know the dolphins intimately, but you will also fall in love with Monkey Mia. Too many tourists come in late at night, stay in the morning for one of the dolphin experiences and then pack up and leave straight after. This area is stunning and is home to turtles, dugongs and an abundance of life.

Check out my Instagram @lisabenjess for more pics and the Monkey Mia Dolphin Experience Facebook Page for up to date info.

Piccolo, Kiya, Jindi and Pan and all the other beautiful dolphins that swim in the bay, I will be back again!